Platform Work in China: Exhausting Working Hours and Lack of Social Protection
Research shows the precariousness of work on platforms in China.
The research Digital labor platforms and national employment policies in China: Studying the case of food delivery platforms provided an overview of the digital economy and work in China, with a focus on food platforms and their impact on labor relations, conditions, wages and social protection for the category.
The study states that when compared to other countries, China has the highest number - absolute and relative - of workers per platform. The digital economy as a whole has become an important area for work in the country, with annual growth of 11.5%.
COVID-19 has strongly impacted the Chinese labor market, providing a significant economic boost for digital platforms with the entry of unemployed workers from other sectors into platformized jobs.
In 2018, the digital economy employed 191 million people, representing 24.6% of the national workforce. Within this economy, the number of workers per platform grew from 50 million in 2015 to 84 million in 2020. The number of food delivery workers per platform has reached 7 million people, with a high representation of rural and urban migrants in the sector.
Social protection is low.
- more than 75% of the full-time workers on the work platforms reported not having employment contracts with any company,
- resulting in 34.40% of workers having no access to social security.
The survey also mentions alarming data on the long working hours in the country.
- around 30% of full-time drivers on transport platforms, for example, work more than 12 hours a day; and
- almost half of food delivery workers worked more than 10 hours a day in 2019.
